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The narrative in the Lebor Gabála Érenn is a pseudo-Biblical accoont o the oreegin o the Gaels as the stryndants o the Scythie prince Fénius Farsaid, ane o sevinty-twa chieftains who built the Touer o Babel. Goídel Glas wis the son o Nel, son o Fénius, sired on Scota, dochter o a Pharaoh o Egyp.[1] Goídel Glas is creditit wi the creation o Gaelic (proto-Erse leid) frae the oreeginal seiventy-twa leids that arose at the time o the dispersal o the naitions.[2] His stryndants, the Gaels, unnergo a series o trials an tribulations that are clearly modelled on those wi which the Israelites are treed in the Auld Testament. They flourish in Egyp at the time o Moses an leave durin the Exodus; they wander the warld for fower hunder an fowerty years afore eventually settlin in the Iberie Peninsula. Thare, Goídel's stryndant Breogán foonds a ceety cried Brigantia, an builds a touer frae the top o which his son Íth glimpses Ireland. Brigantia can probably be identifee'd wi A Coruña, north-wast Galicie, kent as Brigantium in Roman times;[3] A Roman lichthoose thare kent as the Touer o Hercules haes been claimit tae hae been built on the steid o Breogán's touer.[4]

A interestin anecdote in the LGE tells hou Gaidel Glas, son o Nel (Keating: Niul), wis cured o a serpent's sting when Moses made fervent prayer an touched his rod upon the lad's woond.[5] An inserted verse in an earlier passage says of Gaidel: "green were his arms and his vesture".[6]O'Clery's redaction o the Lebor Gabála adds that the snake bite left a green ring on the boy, frae which he earned his elkname o Gaidel Glas (meanin "Green").[7] Keating repeats this quotin a glossarial verse an aw, awtho he prefaces it wi a alternate derivation o the elk-name frae the wird for lock (Erse: glas‎)[8][9]

A Scots version o the tale o Goídel Glas an Scota wis recordit bi John o Fordun. This is apparently no based on the main Erse Lebor Gabála accoont. Fordun refers tae multiple sources, an his version is taken tae be a attempt tae synthesise these multiple accoonts intae a single history.

In Fordun's version, Gaythelos, as he caws Goídel Glas, is the son o "a certain keeng o the kintras o Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, bi name", who wis exiled tae Egyp an teuk service wi the Pharaoh, marryin Pharaoh's dochter Scota. Various accoonts o hou Gaythelos came tae be expelled frae Egyp—bi a revolt follaein the daith o Pharaoh an his airmy in the Reid Sea, pursuin Moses, or in terror frae the Plagues o Egyp, or efter a invasion bi Ethiopies—are gien, but the upshot is that Gaythelos an Scota are exiled thegither wi Greek an Egyptian nobles, an they settle in Hispania efter wanderin for mony years. In the Iberie Peninsula they settle in the laund's northwast corner, at a place called Brigancia (the ceety o A Coruña, that the Romans kent as Brigantium).

↑O'Cléirigh & Macalister 1916, LG, Vol. 1, p.197 "§128 Aaron went to Moses after that, and tells him the hearty welcome that Nel, son of Fenius, gave them, .. [Nel had a son, and ] a venomous serpent wound itself around him so that death was near him.. Moses made vehement and diligent prayer to God, when the boy reached him, and he struck the famous rod on the serpent till he cleft it in two. The boy was sound at once. There was a green ring on him in the place where the serpent had coiled about him, from that out to his death, so that thus Glas [" Green "] stuck to him as an extra name."

↑Comyn & Dinneen 1902, vol2, p.19- (Keating, §16): "Some seanchas state that Moses fastened [his bracelet] with a lock.." etc.; the passage also seems to suggest the nickname also has to do with the word fleascach, glossed here as 'bracelet-bearer' denoting an authority figure, even though 'fleasc' normally means a staff or rod.